Human rights expert to lecture at OHIO on Constitution Day

Sep 11, 2013By Angie Brock

In celebration of Constitution Day, Bert B. Lockwood, director of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at the University of Cincinnati Law School and editor-in-chief of Human Rights Quarterly, will deliver a lecture at Ohio University titled, "U.S. Constitution and International Human Rights Law." The address will take place at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, in Scripps Hall's Anderson Auditorium.

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost in conjunction with the Center for Law, Justice and Culture is sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

Constitution Day is a federal observance that recognizes the signing of the United States Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

"For this year's Constitution Day, the Center for Law, Justice and Culture has planned a full slate of activities which support the study and celebration of the powerful and dynamic document that is our United States Constitution," said Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit. "We are particularly pleased to welcome our colleague from the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Bert Lockwood, as keynote speaker and guest to some of our classes and learning communities during his visit. Professor Lockwood is not only an internationally renowned scholar, speaker and editor-in-chief of the Human Rights Quarterly, he has also undertaken numerous human rights missions around the globe. His first-hand perspective and keen scholarship will be of great interest to our students and faculty alike."

Lockwood's lecture will consider the complex relationship between international human rights law and the constitutional legal frameworks in the United States today.

"The question is to what extent we have accepted international human rights for ourselves, especially on issues relating to national security, immigration policy and racial injustice," said Haley Duschinski, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Law, Justice and Culture.

Lockwood is the long-standing editor-in-chief of Human Rights Quarterly, one of the world's leading human rights journals, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. He also is the founder and editor, for more than 20 years, of the Human Rights book series through the University of Pennsylvania Press.

"Many of the most hotly debated political issues in U.S. society today – issues such as capital punishment, same-sex marriage, racial profiling, immigrant rights and reproductive rights – can and are being considered, not only through the framework of U.S. constitutional law, but also through the lens of international human rights," said Duschinski. "That's why we're so pleased that Professor Lockwood will be addressing this critically important topic in his Constitution Day lecture."

College of William and Mary law professor to lecture on corporations, free speech rights

In keeping with the Constitution Day observance, Alan Meese, Ball professor of law at the College of William and Mary, will deliver a lecture titled, "Do Corporations Have Free Speech Rights?" on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Scripps Hall Auditorium.

Meese did his undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary, where he graduated first in his class, before attending the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, he clerked first for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the faculty at the College of William and Mary in 1995, he practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Washington, D.C.

Meese has published widely on antitrust, the economics of tort law, the jurisprudence of economic liberties, affirmative action, and whether corporate directors should be concerned about the welfare of non-shareholder constituencies.

The event is open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Ohio University chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society and the George Washington Forum.